World Superbike

Rea in cruise control as he takes thirteenth victory of the year

1 Mins read
Credit: WorldSBK.com

Jonathan Rea produced a scintillating ride in the Tissot Superpole race at the Circuito San Juan Villicum, which was back to full participation after the debacle that was race one. 

After a six rider boycott on Saturday due to unsafe track conditions, luckily there was no such problem today as the majority of the field drastically improved their performance by over three seconds compared to any other session this weekend.

The rider leading the way in this regard was Rea who broke the circuit record multiple times after taking the lead on the opening lap from pole sitter Alvaro Bautista.

Rea was over eight tenths quicker in the morning warm up, and continued his impressive from as he quickly opened a commanding gap of two seconds. 

While Bautista and Toprak Razgatlioglu were second and third with no threat from behind, the gaps were spreading out between the three leaders resulting in somewhat of a stalemate situation.

Instead the man on the move was Chaz Davies, who was in a four way battle with Alex Lowes, Michael Van Der Mark and Sandro Cortese

Davies was clearly the fastest of the group and made his way past Van Der Mark for fifth on lap two, before making that fourth place two laps later with a late braking move going into turn one on Lowes. 

As the gaps stabilised between the front seven, Rea suffered a nervous moment on the penultimate lap when he ran off the racing line and nearly lost the front end.

Even with the mistake, Rea barely lost time to Bautista and went on to secure a comfortable victory ahead of the Spaniard

Razgatlioglu took his second third place of the weekend ahead of Davies in fourth. Positions five through seven were occupied by all Yamaha riders, with Lowes beating Van Der Mark and Cortese. 

It’s been another tough weekend for Leon Haslam who finished in eight place and over fifteen seconds down on his teammate. Tom Sykes took ninth place ahead of Leandro Mercardo who finished tenth for the second time in as many races. 

The only retiree was Loris Baz after suffering a crash on the opening lap just as he did in Saturday’s Superpole qualifying session. 

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25 Year old Motorsport enthusiast, with my expertise lying mostly with Motorcycle racing. Lived abroad when I was younger and I've also played a variety of different sports in that time. I'm currently studying Sports Journalism, with the hope of getting into commentary in the future.
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